The present invention relates to repeating firearms, and particularly to an accessory for holding a loaded replaceable magazine closely alongside the place where a magazine is actually used in such a firearm.
In land warfare the individual infantry soldier is still an important part of military operations. The effectiveness of infantry operations depends to a large extent on the accuracy, rate of fire and number of rounds of ammunition which each individual soldier is capable of providing. Modern infantry weapons are capable of high cyclic rates of fire and are usually equipped to use magazines capable of holding dozens of cartridges. Such magazines usually must be manually released from a magazine well of the associated weapon when empty, and a full magazine must then be inserted into the weapon before firing may be continued. In order to be capable of sustained firing, an infantry soldier carries loaded spare magazines, typically carrying them in protective pouches attached to ammunition belts worn on the body. When actually engaged in combat, soldiers commonly carry spare magazines ready for immediate use, as removal of a loaded magazine from a cartridge belt may take an undesirably long time.
The ability to reload a weapon quickly also is important in police work, where a police officer normally is not provided with a large supply of ammunition and may be involved in a shooting situation with little or no support from others.
Yet another situation occurs where soldiers are undergoing training and it is desired that weapons be kept safe until a certain point at which it may actually become necessary to fire weapons quickly. Many military weapons may be kept verifiably safe using a device such as that disclosed by Johnson U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,765. However, it is still necessary to provide a magazine readily and safely available for such circumstances.
Because of the clumsiness of carrying a loaded spare magazine in one's hand, devices have been designed to enable spare magazines to be carried attached to a weapon, or attached to a service magazine actually mounted in a repeating firearm. For example, pairs of magazines have been welded together side by side, in opposing orientation. This requires a pair to be turned over, after the first magazine has been emptied and released from the weapon, before the second magazine can be inserted into the weapon for use. This procedure takes an undesireably long amount of time, is awkward, and results in each welded pair of magazines being twice as heavy and clumsy to carry as a single spare magazine. Additionally, the end of the loaded spare magazine which will have to be inserted into the weapon is left exposed and downwardly open, presenting the possibility of a cartridge being damaged or dislodged, or of dirt entering the magazine and being subsequently carried into the action of the firearm with potentially disastrous results.
The magazines used with most automatic-loading firearms retain the cartridges in such a way that they are not completely covered, but are exposed and presented one by one to be loaded into the firing chamber of the weapon from one end of the magazine. Any sand, mud, or other dirt or debris which is carried into the operating mechanism of the firearm by a spare magazine which has been carried unprotected is likely to result in malfunctioning of the weapon during use of the spare magazine. In a combat situation such a failure of the weapon is likely to be fatal.
While a longer period of sustained fire might be provided by simply using a larger magazine with a weapon, this solution is workable only so long as the increased size of the magazine does not interfere with use of the weapon. A magazine which extends too far beneath the stock of a weapon may make it difficult or impossible to fire the weapon from a prone position. Additionally, reliable cartridge feeding mechanisms for larger magazines may be undesirably complex and difficult to manufacture.
One particularly effective device for use in carrying a spare magazine attached to an automatic firearm in a position of readiness for immediate use is described in Johnson U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,404. While such a device is readily useable with some types of automatic rifles, it is not so easily adapted for use with certain other automatic rifles, whose magazine retaining latch systems are not easily used to control a latch system of such a spare magazine holder. Such weapons utilize, for example, a fixed pin in the forward portion of the magazine well, in combination with a moveable latch located at the rear of the magazine well, so that a magazine is latched in place in the magazine well by using an upward motion followed by a rearward pivoting, or rocking, motion.
Schwaller U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,403 discloses a magazine which can be linked to another magazine alongside it in the same orientation, using mating pins and chocks. This arrangement, however, provides no protection for the open upper end of the magazine.
Musgrave U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,100,694 and 4,115,943 disclose spare magazine holders which retain spare magazines in locations forward of the service magazine of a repeating firearm, but require an undesirably long movement of a spare magazine to load it into place in the magazine well.
End U.S. Pat. No. 2,130,383 discloses a spare magazine held in a different orientation from that of a service magazine, thus requiring undesirable manipulation and wasting time before insertion of the spare magazine into the magazine well of a firearm is possible.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved easily-utilized device for retaining a loaded spare magazine in a position where it is immediately available, oriented ready to be inserted into a firearm as a service magazine, protected against foreign material, and held closely adjacent to the location where it is to be inserted into a firearm. Such a device should be low in cost, yet it must be entirely dependable and it should be useful with firearms of types with which the spare magazine holder of Johnson U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,404 is not easily used.